Tokayev and Trump Put Results at the Center of a Growing Partnership
Investment, nuclear security and a possible visit to Kazakhstan featured in a July 10 telephone call between Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and U.S. President Donald Trump. Tokayev began by congratulating Trump on the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence. He noted that the United States had become a global superpower within three generations and expressed support for what Akorda described as the Trump administration’s “common-sense policies”. The Kazakh president also said those policies aligned with his own vision of building a Just Kazakhstan based on law and order. The language reflected the increasingly warm tone of the relationship and Tokayev’s effort to engage Trump through themes of national strength, order and economic achievement. The discussion soon turned to results. Tokayev reported progress in implementing agreements reached during his November 2025 visit to Washington. During that visit, Kazakh and U.S. partners announced 29 deals and cooperation initiatives worth nearly $17 billion, according to Kazakh officials. They included a planned $1.1 billion tungsten project involving U.S.-based Cove Capital. Kazakhstan’s scale gives the relationship wider strategic weight. By far Central Asia’s largest economy, it accounted for 56.4% of the combined GDP of the region’s five states in 2025, based on World Bank data. Kazakhstan also held 66.4% of Central Asia’s inward foreign direct investment stock at the end of 2025, according to UNCTAD. Its importance to the United States and its allies is equally concrete. Kazakhstan-origin material accounted for 24% of foreign-origin uranium deliveries to U.S. civilian nuclear-power operators in 2024, second only to Canada, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Kazakhstan also accounted for 12.7% of the value of the European Union’s crude petroleum-oil imports from outside the bloc in 2025, behind only the United States and Norway, according to Eurostat. That economic and strategic weight helps align the priorities of the two governments. Washington wants dependable sources of critical minerals and more resilient supply chains. Kazakhstan wants American capital and technology to expand processing, manufacturing and higher-value production. The November package provided a framework for moving the relationship from political interest toward concrete commercial projects. Senator Steve Daines has helped sustain that momentum. Akorda specifically mentioned Tokayev’s recent meeting with Daines, alongside his contacts with U.S. Special Envoy for South and Central Asia Sergio Gor, other White House officials and American business leaders. Daines has become one of Washington’s leading advocates for closer engagement with Kazakhstan and the wider Caspian region. In a June speech on U.S. relations with the region, he called for new mines, upgraded infrastructure and artificial-intelligence investment. He also pressed Congress to repeal the Jackson–Vanik restrictions still affecting Central Asia. For Kazakhstan, the lingering Cold War-era measure leaves normal trade relations subject to annual review rather than permanent status. Its removal would provide greater political certainty for long-term American investment. The most strategically significant language in the Akorda readout concerned nuclear non-proliferation. Tokayev reaffirmed Kazakhstan’s commitment to “non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and enriched uranium” and stressed close collaboration with the International Atomic Energy Agency to ensure effective...
